Gays vs. God, or, battles fought on the chests of America's high schoolers

[deep]

yeah

collect the shirts and donate them to a wet Tshirt contest

 

[Teta040]

As someone who went to a Catholic girl's high school and wore a uniform for 5 years, (my family isn't Catholic but they thought it a good idea to enroll me because of the high academic rep of the place, and its connections to the local people of power), I can personally say that wearing a uniform does not positively affect a student's morality. In fact, just the reverse. The rigorous enforcing of moral codes in school only leads to a more spontaneous desire to refute those morals once the kids are out the doors. It's the old story of Rebellion. The smell of pot was just as strong outside the convenience store down the block from the school as any other one would be, and I used to see students with their uniforms still on smoking it as well as any public schooler. Every one of the parties I went to, and most from what I heard tell of the ones I didn't, were the typical raunchy drunken debauch, esp since most of these girl's parents were among the local elite and could afford a lot of alcohol when their daddies were away. This was a posh place, not just a Catholic school. I personally knew 2 girls who got pregnant in their 2nd and 3rd year and were, of course, suspended. Uniforms may be a good idea, you think, but they can have adverse results too.

Yours Truly was already 1) in the process of becoming a Christains by that point and 2) a longtime U2 fan, so the consumption of booze was minimal. But I can say that wearning a uniform? I hated it. What I hated was the way students lost thier individuality, and everyone wa forced to think and act like clones. If students were allowed to wear street clothes but the dress code was severe AND rigidly enforced--as much so as it would be if your job had a dress code and you came to work violating it, you'd be sent home--some results might come of it.

 

[indra]

Yours Truly was already 1) in the process of becoming a Christains by that point and 2) a longtime U2 fan, so the consumption of booze was minimal. But I can say that wearning a uniform? I hated it. What I hated was the way students lost thier individuality, and everyone wa forced to think and act like clones. If students were allowed to wear street clothes but the dress code was severe AND rigidly enforced--as much so as it would be if your job had a dress code and you came to work violating it, you'd be sent home--some results might come of it.

Do teenagers who follow fashion or a particular "look" within their peer group have any less of a uniform than the ones who have one set down for them by the school? I don't think so. I also don't think they are showing any more individuality by dressing like all the other kids (and lets face it, that's what the vast majority of students do). I had the uniform thing too, and I was never really bothered by it, and I was always an individual. (I recently met an old classmate. We hadn't seen each other since graduation in 1980, and while we were talking she gave me this weird look and said "you always were kind of spacey." Well...she was right, and dressing in a uniform didn't make me any less "me," although it did take the pressure off having to have the "right" clothes (which I imagine is even more intense now).


And just on a tiny side note -- how did following a notoriously heavy drinking band (U2) translate to making your consumption of booze minimal?

 

[nickypiemcg]

I think that public schools should start enacting school uniforms.

Melon

I agree with that. I'm from Scotland and my school had uniforms. At the time we all though we should be able to wear whatever we want but now I look back and realise everyone was on a level playing field and we didn't make school become a fashion show.

 

[nickypiemcg]

I'm not a christian. I was raised as one but I've always found it hard to swallow. What I understood though was that christianity was about love. I think that nobody follows the bible word for word (let's face it that would be impossible as there are alot of hypocritical words in it!) so why pick out homosexuals? Nobody chooses to be gay it is something you are born with. I think that everybody "sins" and the point is that only "God" can judge us and when i hear of "christians" going on and on about homosexuality I wonder if God really meant for this?

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

As someone who went to a Catholic girl's high school and wore a uniform for 5 years, (my family isn't Catholic but they thought it a good idea to enroll me because of the high academic rep of the place, and its connections to the local people of power), I can personally say that wearing a uniform does not positively affect a student's morality. In fact, just the reverse. The rigorous enforcing of moral codes in school only leads to a more spontaneous desire to refute those morals once the kids are out the doors. It's the old story of Rebellion.

Thank you. I've never had to wear a uniform in school, and quite frankly, I wouldn't ever want to. The clothes you wear don't affect your learning at all one way or the other-there were kids at my school in my original hometown who had dyed hair and piercings all over and all that, and they still did just fine in school. And so did those of us who had to sit by them day in and day out-we weren't getting "distracted" by their clothes or anything.

Originally posted by nickypiemcg
At the time we all though we should be able to wear whatever we want but now I look back and realise everyone was on a level playing field and we didn't make school become a fashion show.

So there's a "level playing field" at school. There won't be one in the real world. What happens then?

From what my parents have told me, and from what I've learned about my parents' generation in school, the generation before us would've rebelled against school uniforms-the guys hated hearing people tell them to cut their hair, the girls didn't like being told they couldn't wear pants to school (the schools my mom went to would not allow girls to wear pants to school for the longest time. It was only when she got into high school that that changed) or that their skirts and dresses were too short, or things like that. And now they're turning around and trying to dictate things regarding clothing to this generation? I don't get that.

Angela

 

[melon]

I wore uniforms for 13 years, and I've become as "rebellious" as I am today. I think it's quite a positive development, so why shouldn't I want others to share it?

Melon

 

[financeguy]

Gays are different to the majority.
Therefore, gays are bad people.
Therefore, God hates them.
QED!

Some people make me laugh.

 

[blueeyedgirl]

Gee, after all those years of watching American teen movies where Molly Ringwald, the poor girl, fell in love with the rich boy, I thought THAT was the battlefield of American education.

Things have moved on, huh?

 

[Do Miss America]

I can't stand the idea of enforcing conformity in public schools, that being said these kids with the "commandment" shirts are absolutely ignorant.

 

[JessicaAnn]

As someone who went to a Catholic girl's high school and wore a uniform for 5 years, (my family isn't Catholic but they thought it a good idea to enroll me because of the high academic rep of the place, and its connections to the local people of power), I can personally say that wearing a uniform does not positively affect a student's morality. In fact, just the reverse. The rigorous enforcing of moral codes in school only leads to a more spontaneous desire to refute those morals once the kids are out the doors. It's the old story of Rebellion. The smell of pot was just as strong outside the convenience store down the block from the school as any other one would be, and I used to see students with their uniforms still on smoking it as well as any public schooler. Every one of the parties I went to, and most from what I heard tell of the ones I didn't, were the typical raunchy drunken debauch, esp since most of these girl's parents were among the local elite and could afford a lot of alcohol when their daddies were away. This was a posh place, not just a Catholic school. I personally knew 2 girls who got pregnant in their 2nd and 3rd year and were, of course, suspended. Uniforms may be a good idea, you think, but they can have adverse results too.

Yours Truly was already 1) in the process of becoming a Christains by that point and 2) a longtime U2 fan, so the consumption of booze was minimal. But I can say that wearning a uniform? I hated it. What I hated was the way students lost thier individuality, and everyone wa forced to think and act like clones. If students were allowed to wear street clothes but the dress code was severe AND rigidly enforced--as much so as it would be if your job had a dress code and you came to work violating it, you'd be sent home--some results might come of it.

I went to Catholic Schools for both elementary school and high school. In elementary school we had uniforms, for high school we did not.

I don't think uniforms force you to think and act like clones. You are still an individual underneath your uniform, able to think and act for yourself--and that may include smoking pot or getting pregnant.

You recommend a strict dress code ... that could work, but it also creates yet another thing that teachers and school administrators have to worry about when they should be teaching.

What uniforms do is minimize the distractions that clothing may have on students and virtually eliminate yet another thing for overworked teachers to enforce.

 

[beegee]

I was being completely serious. Public schools should not be political forums for any liberal or conservative cause, but institutions of learning. There seems to be a deficiency of "learning" in public schools these days.

that's exactly what i was thinking as i read this thread.

this kind of debate has no business in a public school.

 

[nbcrusader]

dress codes level the playing field in many ways, allowing a school to focus on education.

 

[Irvine511]

Gee, after all those years of watching American teen movies where Molly Ringwald, the poor girl, fell in love with the rich boy, I thought THAT was the battlefield of American education.

Things have moved on, huh?

that picture you display of Bono is promoting the radical homosexual agenda.

i demand that you remove it, lest the eyes of impressionable children be singed.

 

[Harry Vest]

America seems doomed.
I beleive certain people may be right when they say that the American Evangelical Right Wing Church could indeed be the forces of "AntiChrist" and that soon America will become a Theocratic state which will rule the earth with an iron fist. Sad indeed. Not to mention scary.

 

[XHendrix24]

America seems doomed.
I beleive certain people may be right when they say that the American Evangelical Right Wing Church could indeed be the forces of "AntiChrist" and that soon America will become a Theocratic state which will rule the earth with an iron fist. Sad indeed. Not to mention scary.

You mean we don't already rule the earth?

 

[daygloeyes2]

As someone who went to a Catholic girl's high school and wore a uniform for 5 years, (my family isn't Catholic but they thought it a good idea to enroll me because of the high academic rep of the place, and its connections to the local people of power), I can personally say that wearing a uniform does not positively affect a student's morality. In fact, just the reverse. The rigorous enforcing of moral codes in school only leads to a more spontaneous desire to refute those morals once the kids are out the doors. It's the old story of Rebellion. The smell of pot was just as strong outside the convenience store down the block from the school as any other one would be, and I used to see students with their uniforms still on smoking it as well as any public schooler. Every one of the parties I went to, and most from what I heard tell of the ones I didn't, were the typical raunchy drunken debauch, esp since most of these girl's parents were among the local elite and could afford a lot of alcohol when their daddies were away. This was a posh place, not just a Catholic school. I personally knew 2 girls who got pregnant in their 2nd and 3rd year and were, of course, suspended. Uniforms may be a good idea, you think, but they can have adverse results too.

Yours Truly was already 1) in the process of becoming a Christains by that point and 2) a longtime U2 fan, so the consumption of booze was minimal. But I can say that wearning a uniform? I hated it. What I hated was the way students lost thier individuality, and everyone wa forced to think and act like clones. If students were allowed to wear street clothes but the dress code was severe AND rigidly enforced--as much so as it would be if your job had a dress code and you came to work violating it, you'd be sent home--some results might come of it.

I go to an all-girls catholic school. I wear a uniform and I really don't mind it that much. But hey, to each their own.